Will artificial sweeteners kill yeast?

[mstrick96]

I started several juice bottles fermenting and two of the three are gently bubbling away. The third already has a sediment on the bottom and as far as I can tell is not fermenting.

The third was an experiment. 2/3 of the bottle was what I removed from the other juice bottles, but 1/3 was from a bottle of Diet Cranberry juice. I blended the three bottles and added sugar.

The "Diet" juice was sweetened with acesulfame potassium, which is a frequently used artificial sweetener. I can't find online that is as any preservative properties, but I think it may have killed the yeast in the blend.

Again, this was an experiment. I wanted to see what effect the Diet Juice would have.

Has anyone else ever tried this? Do you think I could recover the fermentation by re-pitching the yeast after activating it in warm water?

 

[sour_grapes]

What have you observed that has led you to fear that you have killed the yeast?

 

[FlamingoEmporium]

Hydrometer is our friend - is SG dropping ?

 

[Raptor99]

Are there any preservatives in the diet cranberry juice?

 

[mstrick96]

I got it going again by shaking it up well. It is now bubbling happily away.

What I was seeing was very little evidence of bubbles plus it appeared that the yeast had sedimented out on the bottom of the bottle.

I'm using the "loose cap" method so no airlock. Shaking it up redistributed the yeast and got it started again. To make sure it was started, I closed off the cap and pressure built up in the bottle pretty quickly. Since I'm using the 64 oz bottles, I don't want to measure SG until the end.

There were no preservatives. Only the artificial sweetener.

Thanks!

 

[Rice_Guy]

The artificial sweeteners are safe as tested with lab rats and large scale feeding trials on humans.
NO ,,, ARTIFICAL SWEETENERS DO NOT KILL YEAST! What they do is act as an inert molecule in the must.